Puzzle in the Window
by Chris ShadowMoon
Summary: What if Ranma was living a lie? What if he was much different that he acts. What if he was the reincarnated spirit from ancient Egypt, and what if he was given the job of finding the Millennium Items? See Author Note on Ch 1 for information. Hiatus
1. Chapter 1

Puzzle in the Window

By Chris ShadowMoon

Ok, this is the second time I put this on here... why? Simple. I had to change up a few things. Mainly, I combined Ch 3 and 4 into one chapter, and changed the reason Hotaru ran off. i think this might be better. So, IT'S THE SAME STORY UP TO CH 3, AND THERE ISN'T MUCH CHANGE AFTER THAT!

DISCLAIMER- I do not own Ranma ½. I do not own Sailor Moon. I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. The cards mentioned in later chapters (if I publish them) are from several different games, none of which I own. There is likely to be one more manga/anime that I'm putting into the story. Lets see if you can guess it!! Here is your hint. I'm addicted to anime. ( I still don't own it. Oh well.) If you recognize it, I DON'T OWN IT! Simple enough

CHAPTER 1

Deep within a realm where no life exists in light, and no hope exists on its own, a single figure was waiting. It had been almost one thousand years, and he was getting impatient. He had failed at his one mission that he assigned himself, and now, unless he did something, the world was in danger. The objects he was guarding had fallen through the weakened dimension barrier. Some had returned to their universe of origin, but unfortunately, most had slipped into another dimension, where the chosen couldn't reach them. They were going to need to be recovered; otherwise BOTH worlds and all the others could be torn apart. But first, he had to wait. Two of the items that made it back to its home reality. One had held a part of his spirit, and if his spell had worked, and he knew it had, then the other part of his soul had been reincarnated, and was waiting for the other part to become whole. But until the item managed to reach the right person, all that the man could do was wait as the walls of the barricade degraded further.

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Several years later- Nerima-Present Day

Well, at least the view is nice.

Ranma was annoyed. No, that word isn't good enough. He was annoyed, pissed off, frustrated, in slight pain, BORED, and did I mention annoyed... He was on another trip via 'Akane Air' again. Ever sense the failed wedding, Akane had become increasingly more violent towards him, never believing him and always assuming the worse. This time involved Shampoo and Ryoga, which ended predictably, with Ryoga skyward, and Ranma on the receiving end of a mallet. And so there he was, about a mile in the air flying over Japan. Judging by his angle, he should land right about….

BOOM!

…now.

Little bits of gravel flew up into the sky, raining down on the other passerby's. One of them stopped to take a look at the crater, just as Ranma started to stand up and brush off his shirt. "Damnit. Why is it always me?" He took a look around and whistled. "Wow, new personal best. I think I'm somewhere in Juuban. Damned bitch. Why do I even keep up with this charade, anyway?" Of course, he knew why he kept the 'dumb jock hopelessly in love with a violent tomboy' act up. It was a… kind of like a gut instinct. He just KNEW that he needed to be there. He also knew that it was close to time. He started walking, not caring where he was going. He found himself outside of an antique store about an hour later. He realized that he had walked right into the heart of the Juuban Ward. He walked through the door.

It was one of those tacky places. You know the type. Weird and random pictures on the walls, random clutter scattered everywhere. You could find almost anything there, from antique harps, to rocking chairs, to jade elephants. The small man in the front of the shop was too busy looking at a strange golden ring to notice him walk in. He seemed to just follow a path marked out in the stuff, not once stopping or branching off. Something there was his by right, and he was going to find it.

And find it he did. It was hidden towards the back of the store, under an old oil painting. It was a golden box, inscribed with what appeared to be ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics, and a large eye, that slightly resembled the 'Eye of Horus' from Egyptian Mythology. It slid open with a puff of dust, making our avid hero cough slightly. Inside were pieces of metal. It looked like a puzzle, slightly. Ranma could tell that this was his. He picked it up, was about to walk away, when something else caught his eye. It was only five feet way, and around the neck of a sculpture of what appeared to be Mozart. It was a golden necklace, with the same eye emblem that the box had. He felt, drawn to it. Well, if the box with the eye on it is why I've been pretending to be stupid and in love with Akane, then the necklace with the same eye symbol might be a good thing to take with me. He took it off the statue and slipped it in the box.

He walked up to the cashier and put the box on the counter. "Excuse me sir, how much is this?" The man barely looked up from the set of rings he was examining. "It's just junk. Take it. No charge." He went back to his work. Ranma couldn't believe his luck. Two rare and powerful objects, he could literally feel the power rolling off them in waves, totally free of charge. He could have paid for them, of course. He did have money, that thankfully Nabiki never bothered to look too deep for, but he never looked a gift horse in the mouth.

His fortunes were increased when he got home. Everyone was out of the house for the day. Akane was spending the night with her friends, Nabiki was out completing a business deal, Kasumi was shopping, and Soun and Genma were out getting drunk. Never a good sign with those two. He quickly went into the kitchen and put the box on the table. There was something that he needs to do. That feeling of incompleteness is growing, and it's linked to those metal chunks, a puzzle. He couldn't take it any more. He needed to fix that puzzle. He immediately dumped the box out onto the table, the Necklace spilling out onto the pieces.

He put it of to the side for the moment. He had more pressing matters to attend to. He started grabbing pieces at random, sticking them together. After about five minutes, he got lucky. When he clicked two pieces together, they fused into one solid chunk of metal. Then he got an idea. He found all the pieces that had little imperfections on them. In ten minutes he had moved from 40 pieces down to 15. He was about to stop, when he heard a small voice in the back of his mind. After five more minutes, he was down to one more piece. It was the eye. He pushed it in the whole on the front of the pyramid shaped puzzle, and it glowed softly along the ridges. Suddenly, there was a bright flash, and Ranma disappeared.

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Ranma was floating in a sea of colors and sounds. Light was fighting the darkness nearby for domination, and raw power was as abundant as air. Suddenly, he sensed another figure approaching him. He looked in its direction and saw… himself.

"Hello, Ranma. Welcome to the Shadow Realm. Do you know why you're here?" said the Ranma look alike.

Ranma stared in shock at the new arrival, but only for a moment. Gathering his wits, he responded. "Uh… not really, but I bet it has something to do with that puzzle. Say, who are you anyway?"

The Ranma look alike smirked one of Ranma's all knowing smirks. "Why, I'm you, but for the purpose of this discussion, call me Yami. As for how you got here, well… you are needed to help save the world. A few of them actually. I need to tell you a story, but if I do, I need you to promise not to interrupt. Ok?"

Ranma just eyed Yami suspiciously. He looked a lot like him. In fact, they looked exactly alike. Normally, Ranma would have called him a mirror clone and attacked him, however, it was obvious that this WASN'T the mirror clone, but someone else entirely. Besides, Ranma was curious about what was happening here, and with no way to go back to his own dimension, it wasn't like he had anything better to do. He reluctantly nodded. "Sure, but first, why do you look like me?"

Yami smirked. "I'll explain. Now, pay attention, I'm only going to say this once. Long ago, during the times of Ancient Egypt, the pharaohs played a game that was almost exactly like what people call Duel Monsters today. However it was played with real monster and powerful magic. The magic was so strong that it threatened to destroy the world. These games were played in a place of power, dreams and nightmares known to all as the Shadow Realm. These were the Shadow Games.

"The Shadow Realm is a place where, well, it's more a state than a place, where all powers, magic, energies, matter, is transcended, a sort of ultimate magical power, quite beyond the imagination. The power of the Shadow Realm that goes to a mage is comparative to their spiritual resonation with the Shadow Realm. In some cases, priests collected souls and used those souls and their own to in crease the amount of power they can access.

"However, despite this enormous power, or perhaps because of it, in order to protect the world and the rest of existence, I sealed away the power of the Shadow Games in seven millennium items."

Ranma took this in and asked a question, "Why you? I mean surely there were others that could seal the Games away?"

Yami blinked at the question, "You're taking all of this very well!"

"Yeah, well my life is a lot like this. This is nothing compared to Jusenkyo, really magic mushrooms, the Wishbringer Sword, the Dragon's Whisker, the Mark of the God, etc. To me this is nothing."

"Ah, well to answer your question. My father was the Pharaoh and I grew up to become what I am, a Pharaoh Mage, just like all Pharaohs before me, merely I had the advantage of the Shadow Games and the Shadow Realm magic being in common use at the time of my youth. The reason I had to be the one was that, I was the High Shade Mage, the best duelist and Shadow Mage in the Kingdom. The reason I died was a pack of Shadow Mages who were trying to let the Shadow Games consume the world, believing they would gain power instead of torture and oblivion! However, I was able to complete the Millennium Items before I sealed part of my soul in one of them, the only one of two not full of dark energies. Care to guess which one?"

Ranma's eyes opened in shock. Now, Ranma isn't a dumb person. He can see what's going on, but normally he ignores it. This, however, wasn't too hard to figure this out, even if one doesn't pay too much attention. "The Millennium Puzzle!"

Yami just smiled. "Yes. The Millennium Puzzle. There are seven total. The Ring, the Eye, the Key, the Scales, the Rod, the Necklace, or Tauk, and the Puzzle. Each has its own ability. However, each also has the power of the Shadow Games in them, and therefore will corrupt anyone who holds them too long without purifying them. Because half of my soul was inserted into the Puzzle, it has already been purified so you don't have to worry. Now, the Millennium Ring has the ability to search out any other Millennium Item. It can also remove souls from the body. The Eye can use its gaze to look deep into a person's soul and read minds. The Key has the ability to open "the Room to the Soul", which can be used to alter someone's personality. It also ha the ability to make its user invisible. The scales have the power of fusion in the shadow games, to be used in duels. It also allows it's user to weigh the heart of a victim against the feather of Ma'at, the goddess of truth; if a person lies while being interrogated by the owner of the Scale, the side opposite of the feather will lower, as if weighted down by the person's sins, and if the side without the feather drops to the bottom, Ammit, the monster of the abyss, will consume the person's soul, giving modern science the assumption that the cause of "death" was a heart attack. The Millennium Necklace gives the wearer the ability to see into the near future. Finally, the Millennium Puzzle gives the user the ability to teleport anywhere in the world, and enter the shadow Realm, as well as a dangerous ability called the Mind Crush, where the evil in a person is separated from the light and sent to the Shadow Realm. The only problem is that this is very dangerous, much like a lobotomy. Use it sparingly, if you must use it at all. Did you get all that?"

Ranma, surprisingly enough, WAS paying attention to all of that. However, there was something nagging at the back of his mind. "Yes, I've got all that. Now, how does one purify all of the Items?"

"Well, that isn't all too hard. Sense you have one of the Items purified, the other ones that you get also will be purified, as well as merge with your puzzle, giving it the abilities of all the items merged into it. If you already have a purified item, then its energies will purify the energies of a tainted item. It's really not that hard. Just pick it up and merge it to purify it."

"One last question before we move on. You said that two items were pure. What was the second one?"

"Ah yes, it was a necklace, the Tauk. I believe that it was the other object that made it back to your realm. I think that this is because the pure items were attracted to you, but the tainted ones were drawn to the natural taint of the other realm."

"Ok, but tell me this, WHY should I do this? Why should I abandon my life to help you?"

Yami looked at Ranma before he sighed. "Well, first off, you get to go on one hell of an adventure. Secondly, you will have the chance to learn rare and deadly techniques in your Martial Arts and also in… Magic. Don't shoot that down yet!" Yami said as he saw Ranma was about to open his mouth to protest. "This magic comes straight from the Shadow Realm; however, if you are in control, it's very useful and easy to use. And yes, you will need it. Third, it will give you a chance to hop dimensions and make some real friends, not just people that want to use you. Finally, your life sucks, you said so yourself, and this will help you get away from all the people manipulating you."

"First, I wasn't about to protest. I like magic, in ALMOST all forms. Just the demon summoning in a pain. Most of the other stuff is fine. Second, I really need to get a new life. Nothing is going right for me, and I am a chaos magnet. Ok. I'll do it, if you explain to me what I'm supposed to do."

Yami gave another one of his 'I-know-everything-and-you-have-to-find-out-what' smirks and replied "Well, as you can see, there should be six more Millennium Items should be in the Shadow Realm. However, they aren't. The interdimensional barrier that keeps the Shadow realm suspended is starting to collapse. It will fix itself soon; however, the Items fell through the gaps in the barrier and returned to the mortal realm. Well, actually, the mortal REALMS. I've scanned, and only two of the Items made it back to their original dimension, your dimension. They are the Millennium Puzzle and the Millennium Tauk. The other five somehow found themselves in another dimension. YOU need to retrieve them. And before you even ask what's in it for you, I can say right now, that if you manage to gather all of the Items, you might, MIGHT have the power to break your curse. Now, knowing all that, will you still accept?"

Ranma was slightly taken aback with the 'break your curse' bit. The whole hating the curse thing was an act. All of it. He actually liked it. It was deadly useful, for speed, disguises, and the like. As if sensing what Ranma was thinking, Yami assured him that if he didn't want to break the curse, he didn't have to. "Actually Ranma, with three of the items, you might be able to change the trigger. Who knows, I never had much experience with curses like this one."

Yami smiled at him. Not a smirk, but a genuine smile. "Ok, now, here is what you'll need." Yami waved his had over the area between them, and several items appeared. The first appeared to be a belt with a box on it. It was brown, but the box was purple, with the Millennium Eye on it. The second was a deck of cards, grabbing one; it revealed a man standing in purple robes and a long staff in his right hand. The words on the top of the card were **THE DARK MAGICIAN**. Yami took this moment to speak.

"Ah, the Dark Magician, one of my favorites. The first item is of course your deck. It consists of my favorite cards, and is very powerful. However, it can be improved, or a whole new deck could be made. It's all about your style. The second is your deck box. It is attached to your belt. Keep your cards on you at all times, as you might need them at a moments notice." The items flashed, before disappearing and reappearing on his person, with his deck in the box on his belt.

"Um... That's nice and all, but I don't even know HOW to play Duel Monsters."

Oh, yes. Well, that isn't too much of a problem. You see, when you leave the Shadow Realm the dormant memories in your head will activate. Memories of our past life. It will give you strategy, long forgotten martial arts moves, mastery of the Neko-Ken…" Ranma had to resist the urge to do a 'happy dance'. He would be so glad to get rid of the ridiculous fear of cats. "...and control over the Shadow Magic, which was called Sha back in Ancient Egypt."

"Ok, is that it?"

Yami gave a stiff nod. "Yes, I'll start to send…" He never got to finish that sentence, as a large booming voice interrupted him. "NOT QUITE YET, YAMI! I MUST SPEAK WITH HIM FIRST. I WISH TO GIVE HIM A GIFT THAT HE WILL FIND USEFUL." Yami stiffened for a moment, and then looked upwards. He stood like that for a moment, then nodded. "Go ahead and take him, I'm done. Just let me finish here." He turned back to Ranma. "That was Exodia, one of the most powerful gods; in fact, he's the god that created the Shadow Games. Getting a gift from him is a great honor. I'll give you a day or so to get everything in order for a journey. Oh, I almost forgot, this is important. Now, this is complex, so try to keep up. Now, imagine that all the Realms are slider tracks that show time. Now, each Realm has a slider that moves down this track at a different rate of speed, always moving forward at a constant speed. This means that you could stay in one Realm for a week, and return to your own realm to see that only five minutes passed. Now, the shadow realm is different. It can move both forwards and backwards on the time stream, essentially allowing you to travel through time, and hop from one dimension slider to another. That allows you to transfer realms. Use the time travel sparingly. AVOID PARADOXES! If you accidentally come back before you leave, avoid seeing yourselves at all costs. And dimension travel is difficult. I'll teach that one to you specifically. Ok, you're out of here! See ya later." Ranma was, for lack of a better word, stunned. At least on the inside. On the outside, he was calm, cool, and collected. Suddenly, he was surrounded with a white light, and he disappeared from that area of the Shadow Realm.

Another flash of light later, and Ranma was standing in front of the largest figure he had ever seen. He was at least fifty feet tall, looked very… god-like was the only word that could describe him. He was bound with chains at the hands and legs. "GREETINGS, RANMA. I AM EXODIA. YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN GIVIN CARDS BY YAMI, BUT I WISH TO GRANT YOU SOME MORE POWERFUL ONES. YOU SEE, I KNEW THIS DAY WOULD COME FOR SEVERAL HUNDRED YEARS, AND USED WHAT LITTLE POWER I DO HAVE TO TAKE THE RAREST AND MOST POWERFUL CARDS FROM YOUR REALM AND KEEP THEM HERE UNTIL YOU CAME TO CLAIM THEM. AND HERE YOU ARE. YOU WILL FIND THEM IN A SUBSPACE, WHICH YOU WILL KNOW HOW TO ACCESS AFTER YOU LEVE THE SHADOW REALM. THEY HAVE BEEN THOUGHT LOST TO YOUR WORLD FOR YEARS. I ALSO GRANT YOU CUSTOMIZED CARDS. I WILL TELL YOU THIS. THIS MISSION WILL NOT BE EASY. THESE CUSTOM CARDS ARE SOME OF THE STRONGEST CARDS YOU WILL FIND, AND THEY ARE THE ONLY COPY IN ANY REALM. THEY ARE ALSO SENTIENT, AND CAN COMMUNICATE WITH BOTH YOU AND EACHOTHER. THEY WORK BEST IN TEAMS. I RECOMMEND THAT YOU USE THEM THE MOST OFTEN. THAT IS ALL I HAVE TO TELL YOU. GOOD LUCK, AND GOD'S SPEED, RANMA SAOTOME, KING OF GAMES." A flash appeared at his belt, and another box, this one a golden color appeared on his belt, also full of cards. Once more, a flash of bright light, and Ranma was sent back to his own Realm, just 2 seconds after he left.

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When Ranma regained his sense of balance, his first thought was Was that real? But a quick check of his belt, and memory banks, and found his boxes and a large knowledge of things he didn't know five minutes ago. Suddenly something Yami said to him struck him. _**Two**_Millennium Items. Which did he say it was? Uh, the scales? No. Rod? Nope. I remember now! It was the… neck…lace…waitaminute. He glanced at the necklace he got from the antique store. "Was that it? The Millennium Tauk." Suddenly a memory comes rushing at him.

**MEMORY**

_A woman, with a hood over her face, shadowing her eyes, and a glowing Egyptian eye around her neck._

**END MEMORY**

He looked down, and noticed that the Puzzle was on a golden chain about the width of a pinky finger. Shrugging, he put the necklace on, and instantly felt heat coming from both the puzzle and the Tauk. He watched as the double bands of the necklace and the string of the puzzle fused, until he was left with what basically resembled the Tauk, but the chain branched off at the sides and trailed down to the puzzle. He brushed his fingertips across the eye on the Tauk, and his vision changed, but not to a memory, but a glimpse of the future.

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_Ranma looks up at the clock. It reads 7:00. He hears a door open, followed by the call of "I'm home!"He recognizes the voice. It's Kasumi. She must be back from the market. Suddenly, Ranma's vision swims, and everything fades to whiteness_

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Ranma suddenly jerks back to attention and muses out loud. "Well, that proves it. This is the Millennium Tauk, the seer of the future." He searches his memory banks. "Wow. He wasn't kidding. I've never even heard of these styles of Martial Arts. Oh, and that's how magic works. Hey, I didn't know that you can dual wield backhanded daggers like that." He knew Japanese, English, and Ancient Egyptian. He knew how to wield a sword, dual daggers, staffs, and, of all things, throwing needles, with deadly accuracy. He knew the rules and strategy and rules of Duel Monsters. He new how to use his Millennium Puzzle and Tauk effectively and he knew Ancient Egyptian History. But most importantly, he knew how to use his magic.

But the magic was where he hit a snag. He knew how the magic worked, but he didn't know any 'spells'. He puzzled and puzzled until his puzzler was sore... waitaminute, wrong story. Sorry. He finally came to the conclusion that he'd just have to make up his own. He glanced at the clock. It read 3:23pm. That meant he had roughly 3 hours and 30 minutes before Kasumi got home. He assumed that Akane and Nabiki would either be with her or arrive after her. That gave him plenty of time to test out his new magic. Using his knowledge of the Puzzle and its abilities, he focused his magic into the puzzle. It glowed for a second, then a small pop was heard, and for the second time in as many hours, Ranma disappeared from the house.

He reappeared in, of all places, a clearing in the wild forests of Canada. He looked around and shrugged. "Good enough, I guess. Well, let's get started." He found that his magic had almost no limits, especially when he tapped the magic of the Puzzle and Tauk. He found that he could throw what looked like Ki blasts, but they were black, and much more powerful. He could also control fire and lightning, and shapeshift, but took a lot of power to hold another form, even for a few minutes. He even found that he could fly, and by shaping the elements, he could all some of that 'dramatic flare' he was so fond of, such as shaping a blast of lightning or fire to look and sound like a roaring dragon.

He glanced at his new watch, which had the eye symbol on the face. 6:35pm. He had managed to conjure another one after a misfired lightning bolt hit a rock and bounced back on him, but managed to hit is watch instead of him. Damn I have good luck today. Why is that? He shrugged. He only had two or three more things to try. First, he took out one of the cards from his subspace. He had gone over the cards and realized that Exodia wasn't kidding. He'd heard stories from Ukyo, who ironically was a big fan of the game, that there were incredibly rare and powerful cards, but they had all gone missing years ago. Well, he had them now. He found all 4 Blue Eyes White Dragons, the 9 Red Eyes Black Dragons, The Trinity, Dark Magician Girl, Harpies Brother, rumored to be the only copy in existence, and all five pieces of Exodia, Along with Exodia Necross, The Great Sphinx Trio, and hundreds of others. The pack they were stored in was literally a sun of energy in his magic sight. It was another thing he had. The stronger or rarer the card, the brighter it glowed. He could spot a rare card through a wrapper, plastic box, or even 1in of reinforced titanium. At least in theory. Exodia had been very clear when it came to these pieces.

**FLASHBACK**

_Ranma was standing in front of Exodia. "RANMA, REMEMBER. IN THE CARDS I GAVE YOU ARE THE FIVE PIECES OF ME. THEY ARE A LAST RESORT ONLY!! DO NOT USE THEM IN A SHADOW GAME UNLESS THERE IS NO HOPE LEFT. WHEN I AM SUMMONED, I ONLY FOLLOW ONE COMMAND. OBLIDERATE!" Ranma nodded stiffly. "Wait, what did you mean 'WHEN I AM SUMMONED'? Are the cards actually summoning tools?"_

_Exodia nods. Or as much of a nod as a giant yellow Egyptian God can do when bound with chains. "OF COURSE. EACH CARD WILL BRING THE BEAST FROM THE SHADOW REALM. BE VERY CAUTIOUS. THEY WILL OBEY YOU, BUT THEY CAN KILL IF USED WRONG. DON'T WORRY ABOUT THEM BEING DESTROYED. THEY COME BACK HERE." Ranma just nods again. He seemed to be doing that a lot. "I'll remember" "GOOD"_

**END FLASHBACK**

He grabbed a card from subspace at random and looked at it. Mystical Elf. It would work. He delved into his magical core supply and withdrew a thread of magic. Linking the magic to the card, he thrust it outward, picture away from him, saying "MYSTICAL ELF!" The next thing he knew, his arm was recoiling and light had burst out of the card's picture, followed by the Mystical Elf herself. He gaped in awe as the elf landed, breaking his concentration on the card, causing her to disappear. He grabbed another one and poured magic into it, without bothering to look at it, repeating the same motion, but without the words. He was rewarded with a pentagram appearing on the ground, followed by a young girl climbing out of the shadows. She hand long blonde hair down her back, and wore a white gown. The important things to note about the girl was the angle wing coming out of her left shoulder, the bat wing coming out of her right shoulder, and the heart that she held in her hands. This time he waited until the magic had stabilized before he broke his concentration. He looked back at the card, only to find it blank. He scratched his head.

"Well, that's weird. Would you go back into the card please?" He asked the girl, who nodded politely, before fading away. He looked back at the card to find the picture of the girl had returned. The name on the card was 'CHANGE OF HEART'. He put it back into the subspace, and took out one of the strange cards he had found during his earlier observation of his inventory. It was totally blank, and he seemed to have a never-ending amount. He was determined to see if they were useful.

He thought back to the Change of Heart card. The card was blank before he put the girl back into the card. "Hmm…Well, if the Change of Heart can enter a blank card, then maybe…" He glanced around the area. It was mostly destroyed by all the magic he had unleashed on the area. Several trees were dead and burned, trenches were carved into the ground, shards of rock were scattered all over the ground, and there was a distinct smell of burnt grass. He held the blank card out like he had the Mystical Elf and Change of Heart, and channeled out a stream of magic to the surrounding area. But instead of letting the magic just dissipate, he reeled it back into the blank card, calling out the first name he could think of. "PURIFICATION OF THE LAND!" When the light cleared, the surrounding forest was exactly the same as when he had arrived several hours ago, and the blank card wasn't blank any more. It now had a picture of a destroyed forest, a magic card. It even had the name Ranma had assigned it. Purification of the Land.

Glancing back at his watch, he noticed that he only had five minutes before Kasumi was supposed to be home. He channeled more energy back into the puzzle, and disappeared.

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In another realm, a green haired woman stood in front of a pair of massive gates. She had been there for more years than anyone dared to remember, watching and waiting for the coming of the empire that had been destroyed years ago. She had taken her job too seriously though, and even though she was the picture of sanity, she had gotten obsessive. Anything she saw as a threat to her empire was destroyed, completely removed from the timeline. She was Sailor Pluto, and she was having a good day.

"Gates, activate dormancy mode" It's a good thing that we've taken out all the threats to Crystal Tokyo. Now I just need to lock the gates. Too bad they can't stay open, but the pressure from such a massive time-shift could destroy them. She raised her large key-shaped staff to the lock on the gates. "Insert activation code, Alpha-Gamma-Sigma-Eight-One-Beta-Three-Omega. Commence Lockdown." The gates, which ironically spoke in a way-too-high-pitched female voice, apparently can talk. "Commencing lockdown in thirty…twenty-nine…" Just then, Sailor Pluto felt a massive time flux, and scrambled to check the gates. What she saw made her drop her staff and gasp in shock. The last thing she said before the gates slammed shut for the next thousand years was "no…"

END CHAPTER 1

There we go. Like I said, if I continue posting all comes down to the reviews I get. If I don't get any, I may post another chapter. If I get a lot of negative ones, I most likely won't post another chapter. If I get a lot of positive ones, I'll probably post another chapter. Let me know.

Read and Review


	2. Chapter 2

The Puzzle in the Window

Authors Notes. HELLO PEOPLE! I'm back. '**plays DX theme music in the background**' Sorry, love DX. And Jeff Hardy. And London and Kendrick. Sorry, getting off topic here. Anyways, I have some news for everyone.

First off, I would like to say that I've taken the suggestions from various people, and I think I can make them work. At least, some of them. Anyway, I'd just like to say thank you to everyone that sent me a review.

Secondly, I have some fairly bad news. As a lot of people know, its close to Christmas Time (I may not have this out before X-mas, but I'm trying) and that can only mean one thing. Vacation. Unfortunately, the only computer I'd have access to during this time would be my mom's lap-top, and she doesn't like me touching it too much. Ergo (why the hell do I keep using that word? 'shrugs'), I'll get very little time to work on 'The Puzzle in the Window' during my vacation. (12/23/07 to 12/30/07) After that, the next two weeks are full of my Semester Exams at school, so studying for that will also take up a fair amount of time. Unfortunately. I'll update as often as possible, but I MAKE NO PROMISES!

I also want to make one more note. I have never read either the Sailor Moon, Yugioh, or Slayers Manga, so if there is a point I botch up, tell me, but don't go nuclear on me. It won't kill anyone. I HAVE read Ranma ½ though, so I'm fine on that one. As for the other games I'm using, well, I've beaten all four of them to the points of what most people call the 'Final Boss' of each series, but haven't beaten any of them 100. Lets see if anyone can guess them by the clues I give here:

First clue:

This is how each of my games ended:

The first one, I made a bad choice and only finished 99 instead of the 100 I'd have gotten if I had chosen the other group. I got the 100 when playing through on + mode, though.

The second game, I completed the seven chapters that actually are required to see the end of the game, but never actually beat Chapter 8, the Forgotten Adventure.

The third Game, I beat it with 99, including all of the weapons you can get, and maxed out each of my form's seven levels. The optional boss (who had 16 bars of life or so, the final one only had 13 I think) I did defeat, but it took until level 89. The only thing I haven't done is the Poster Challenge, It's way to hard.

In the final game, I've done everything there is to do, but haven't achieved A rank on all five missions on each level for all 6 people.

Your only other hint is that each game has the number 2 in it's name. Oh, and I've never beaten the first version for any of them… go figure.

I want to see if anyone can get it. Remember, you need to specify the number your guessing. I'll tell you next chapter, so you have until then.

Now, for the less important stuff

"Speech"  
'_Thoughts'_  
'**Action**'  
"_Telekinetic Chat"  
_**CARD NAME  
Card Effect**

And now that that's done, on to the story!

Chapter 2

Like he had expected, the Tauk had been right and Kasumi had been home at the exact time the Tauk had said. Thankfully, or unthankfully, depending on how you want to look at it, Ranma had been exhausted from his little romp in the Canadian Forest.

His sleep was undisturbed. Not. Ranma's sleep is always disturbed in one way or another. It's always either his father, panda-baka, or Akane with the bucket in the sleeping room. It was only after a bucket was water that Ranma, now Ranma-chan, was awake. After Akane storming off, while the boy-turned-girl was mumbling something about playing too much Clue, and stalked off towards the furo.

After changing and getting dressed, he wandered into the living room. There he found something he REALLY didn't want to see. In the living room was a whole slew of people. Genma, Soun, Akane, Kasumi, Kuh Lohn, Xian Pu, Msu Tsu, Ukyo, and, somehow, even Kuno and Kodatchi were there. The smug grin on Nabiki's face, which really annoyed Ranma to no end, clearly showed who the cause of all this was. With all of the normal crowd gathered on one place, the results were fairly predictable.

"BOY! IT'S TIME YOU STOPPED THIS FOOLISHNESS AND MARRY AKANE NOW!"

"RANMA NO BAKA! HOW DARE YOU INVITE YOUR FLOOZIES OVER?!" Ah, Akane, as oblivious as ever. How I hate you so.

" RAN-CHAN"

"Airen! You come to China with Shampoo now?"

"SAOTOME! YOU SHALL NEVER HAVE MY SHAMPOO!!" The fact that he was talking to a statue by the garden pond had nothing to do with him being ignored. Really. It didn't.

"Son-in-law, It is time you returned to China with us and marry Shampoo." One guess who that was.

"FOUL SORCEROR! RELEASE YOUR HOLD ON THE PIG-TAILED GIRL AND THE FIREY LIONESS NOW!" Ranma internally smirked. '_If only you really knew, Kuno. If only you knew. Oh well."_

"OHOHOHO! NOW, RANMA-SAMA, COME AND MARRY ME!" Insane bitch at four o'clock.

"Oh, my!" Ranma gave her a slight glimpse and smiled internally. '_Well, at least someone here is still sane'_

Nabiki stood up and walked past him, whispering "Good luck" as she passed. Ranma sighed. "Now all we're missing is…" "RANMA! PREPARE TO DIE!" "Never mind, he's here." He jumped off to the side as the Eternally lost boy gave his overly heavy umbrella of DEATH! Wait, not of death, sorry. Unfortunately, his swing did manage to clip a wooden beam, causing a bit of ceiling to fall and hit Uyko.

"Ryoga, you Jackass!" She gave her spatula a swing, only to have Ryoga duck the swing, having her hit Mousse instead.

It quickly got worse from there. Mousse started swing a broad sword he had pulled out of his sleeve wildly, hoping to hit Ranma. He came nowhere close. Unfortunately, however, he did manage to get the end tangled around Kodatchi's ribbon. Kodatchi, in an attempt to free her weapon, gave the ribbon a good yank.

Anyone who has ever tried to untangle something knows that this is an incredibly stupid idea. In fact, only one of three things really can happen. First, whatever you're yanking on snaps. Bad outcome. Secondly, the tangle could only tighten, making it harder to undo. Again, bad outcome. Finally, the other tangled item could stay stuck to the end of whatever's tangled and be sent flying. Normally not that bad, but in this case, was very bad indeed. Mousse's broadsword was sent flying into the opposite wall, where it imbedded itself only two inches away from Genma's head. After that, everyone got in on the brawl, except Kasumi.

In fact, everyone was so busy fighting that only Kasumi noticed Ranma slide into the shadows by the door and disappear. However, she didn't really think too much of it. After all, this was Ranma. And Ranma was the embodiment of Nerima.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The shadow realm was something special. Ranma, after a little trial and error, found out that Yami was actually incorrect in his description of how the realm worked. He had explained that each world was like a bar, that ran on infinitely through time and space. Ranma had come to find, that instead of a bar, each world was more like a plane, the spread out in each direction. The shadow realm fit into the gaps in-between the planes, as they didn't have any height to them. Moving left and right in the continuum changed the place on the realm where one would end up, but moving forward and backward moved through time.

The magic of the shadow realm was just that. Shadow Magic. Ergo, it worked best with shadow and flame attacks, but poorly with light based spells. The magic requirement goes up dramatically the farther away from the dark end of the spectrum you go.

Shadow Walking was a unique ability in which someone would enter the shadow realm and instantly move the realm to another location before leaving, effectively teleporting. This can also work when traveling through time, however, it is much harder to get the exact location correct.

Unfortunately, after 1000 years of not practicing, Ranma found his aim was more than slightly off. Somehow, while aiming for the mountains of Tibet, and ended up too far to the west, by the cursed springs of Jusenkyo. He looked around and swore. A lot. In many different languages. He noticed the guide running up to him, and slid back into the shadows.

He stepped out of the shadow portal and looked around. He sighed and put his hand up to his eyes to shield the sun. "Is that the Sphinx? Close enough." He had been aiming for the desert fifty miles south of the Great Sphinx in Egypt, but had ended up only about two or so.

He looked up towards the sun, tugging on the emerald-green shirt and pants with the large silver dragon on the back. "Damn, this isn't going to work. It needs to be cooler, like… I wonder." He reached down for his deck.

When his deck left his box, he noticed it flashed yellow. He pulled the top card of the deck, and nearly dropped it.

It was Yami, (the field spell card, not the person) the card he had been thinking of. He put the card back on top and thought of the Dark Magician. He pulled the top card. Dark Magician. Again he tried. It worked.

He tried this several more times before pulling Yami from the deck again. Each time, the card he thought of came to the surface of the deck. He doubted it would work in an actual duel, but between duels, it would probably work just fine.

He pulled Yami out again and watched as the surrounding desert started to turn into a black landscape with reddish streaks and the sky darkened to a deep purple color. It was the landscape of darkness. Ranma felt more powerful just standing in it.

_(AN- For the purpose of the story, and just because it is a good idea, each person and thing on the planet can fall under the Yu-Gi-Oh cards and work a lot like a Yugioh cards, including Attack Points, Defense Points, an alignment, and a classification. Example, using the Dark Magician in that order, is 2500, 2100, Dark, Spellcaster. For people, Attack and Defense points can rise as their strength does, and if standing in an area that generally increases attack and defense points, their attack and defense points rise. Ranma is somewhere around 2700, 2600, Dark, Martial Artist. Ranko, or Ranma-chan (your pick), is closer to 2400,2700, Dark, Cursed Martial Artist. It works in the long run, trust me.)_

He looked over the dark landscape and drew a card from the deck randomly before holding it out. Nothing happened. He shrugged and pulled another card out and repeated the action. Suddenly a large humanoid ox was standing in front of him. It was wearing a red and yellow armor and holding a viciously sharp looking curved blade. The numbers 1700/1000 briefly floated above it's head before disappearing.

Suddenly a circular rune with a pentagram in the center of it rose from the ground, surrounding the humanoid ox, causing Ranma to jump back. The pentagram locked around the ox, and the numbers 1300/600 once again floated above it's head. Ranma looked back at the cards in his hand. **BATTLE OX** and **SPELLBINDING CIRCLE **(Japanese style.)

He played around with this cards, Trial and Explosion style, for several hours. He was about to reach for his custom deck, which he realized he had no idea what contained, but before he could grab them, the Yami field card dropped and he was standing in the dark of the Egyptian desert again. He glanced at his watch and realized it was already 9:45pm back in Japan.

"Aw, crud." He quickly Shadow Walked back to Japan, aiming for Nerima. He stepped out of the shadow of a building and looked around. He spotted Tokyo Tower off in the distance, but didn't recognize his exact location. He looked at a nearby sign to realize he was in the Azuna district, Juuban to be exact. He was about to step back into the shadows when he heard something.

"Now you're gonna get yours, freak!" "Come on, freak, do something!" and various other taunts, almost drowning out a soft "No…please…stop." Ranma ducked around the building into the ally to see three boys crowding around someone and kicking said person.

Ranma walked right up to the group and cracked his knuckles. "Hey, what's going on here?" The boys turned around slowly, and one yelled out "SHIT, IT'S RANMA SAOTOME! RUN!" '_Wow, I have a reputation. Who knew?_' The three of them took of, and Ranma just watched them go.

Curled up in the corner, a young girl was clutching her head in the fetal position. She had purple eyes and short purple hair that was so dark it would be mistaken for black if the light didn't hit it in the exact way. In fact, most people did mistake it for black. She was wearing mostly grey and dark blue and had a dark brown jacket on. She was bleeding slightly from a cut above her eye and had some nasty-looking bruises on her side.

She looked up at Ranma was cautious eyes. Eyes that held pain and a shadow to them that Ranma thought no person, especially not a person that looked no older than thirteen, should have to see. She spoke timidly, like she was afraid of what someone would do once they knew who she was. "Please…don't hurt me."

Ranma's gaze softened. He'd seen this once before. It was about a year before he had gotten cursed, a young boy was found out in the woods. After getting the boy to open up (his father was asleep, of course) he had learned that the boy's life had been hell, between abuse and a lack of friends. Unfortunately, Genma had dragged him out of there and he hadn't heard from the boy again, but he assumed that the boy had managed to get along without him.

"It's ok, I won't hurt you. The other kids are gone now." He held his hand out to help her up. She flinched slightly, a bad sign in Ranma's mind, but eventually she timidly reached out and took his hand. He pulled her to her feet.

"What's your name, anyway?" he asked. She looked down for a second, before responding. "Hotaru Tomoe." She flinched back and raised her arms, as if expecting to be hit. Ranma took note. It was worse than he had thought. "I'm Ranma Saotome. Nice to meet'cha." He wasn't too sure what he should do here, so he did what he thought was best, which was also something he'd never done before. He reached out and gave her a gentle hug.

She stiffened slightly, but when she realized she wasn't going to hurt him, she wrapped around him like if she let go she was going to die, and cried. They were like that, with Hotaru crying on Ranma's shoulder in that alley way in Juuban, for a long time. Finally, Hotaru stopped crying and pulled away, blushing.

"Sorry about that. I don't know what came over me." Ranma just grinned at her. "It's fine. Do you have any family I can contact." She looked at him with fear in her eyes. "No!" She almost screamed. '_I think I found the main source of the problem'_ thought Ranma.

"I mean… no, not really. I don't want to talk about it. I should be going." Ranma gave her a questioning look. "Do you have anywhere to go?" She looked nervous. "Uh..yes. I can go visit a friend of mine." Ranma could tell she was lying. "You're lying." The look in her eyes confirmed her suspicion. "Come with me." She looked at him and started to follow him as he walked around the corner.

Ranma on the other hand was in a dilemma. He couldn't very well just leave her here, who knows what would happen. But he couldn't just bring her back to the Tendo Dojo. He had no idea exactly what it was like after the morning brawl, but he wasn't in too much of a hurry to return one way or another. He was in a bind, until he heard Yami's voice in his head.

"_Ranma, just because I'm dead doesn't mean I don't have any money. Hidden in a pocket in subspace is a large amount of gold coins as well as weapons and magical items. One of the items is a metal cube that can turn into a fully furnished home. I recommend you use that if you don't want to return home."_

Ranma sent a silent thank you to Yami before turning back to Hotaru. "Ok, I know where we can go. Hold on tight." Before Hotaru could ask what he meant, he had scooped her up in his arms and started roof hopping across the city, aiming for the woods on the northern edge of Tokyo.

Chapter End

Phew. That was hard. Ok, I'm leaving on my trip tomorrow. Next chapter, Ranma and Hotaru reach the woods, Hotaru and Ranma open up to each other, and Ranma does his first dimension hop.

Also, why Hotaru doesn't want to return home. Note, if you are a fan of Saturn, the reason will make you hate Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. It's not pretty, and is actually fairly dark. But then, the "Betrayed and in Azkaban" and "Everyone has been lying about everything (except Hermione)" genre of Harry Potter Fanfics aren't my favorite for no reason. It's dark, but not overly so. If I were to classify both of my characters, they fall under the 'Light' catagory at the moment, but will eventually get to 'Dark but not Evil' local. Now, for review responses!

**Undeen:** Unfortunately, I agree. I don't think he'll be finishing it. Ever  
**  
MShrieken**: You asked, and I delivered. :)

**isoulmani**: thanks for the compliment. As for the 'new' Yugioh series, as I said, never read it, probably never will. So I doubt it.

**strikeout:** will do.

**Talent Scout: **I did have some time to read both 'Fist of the Pikachu' and the LoZ cross over (the name escapes me), and they both were well written. I really like AnimeAddiction. The guy is awesome. (FYI, he goes by AnimeAddiction on Lady Cosmos Fanfiction Library, just look, it's there)

**New Lord of Darkness**: That part was in the plan... somewhere. Being in a card, not so much.

**Furio**: Sorry, dude. It needed to be said. I won't do it again, I promise (as much as I can. It may be unavoidable, though. I could go into a long philisophic speech, but I'll leave that for later.

and finally

**xXDeidara-ChanXx:** thanks. Nice name.


	3. Chapter 3

The Puzzle in the Window

"Speech"  
'_Thoughts'_  
"_Telekinetic Talk"  
_**CARD NAME  
Card Effect**  
_Flashback information_

Chapter 3

Even with Hotaru in his arms, Ranma made it to the Tokyo Outskirts at a fast clip. Hotaru had been yelling the whole time. At first, it was in fear, but after she realized that Ranma wasn't going to hurt her, her screams of terror quickly became those of excitement.

Reaching the edge of the woods, Ranma set Hotaru down and reached into subspace after she turned away. Hotaru, meanwhile, was breathing heavily, after having the most fun she'd had in a long time, even sense before she had… '_No, don't go there now. Don't think about them!'_. Looking back to see Ranma was digging through a bag on his shoulder, not watching her, she brought her hand up to her eye and healed the cut as well as the bruises on her side.

At the same time, Ranma was making sure that Hotaru didn't figure out that he had a sub-dimenstional tear in the Space-Time Continuum hidden in the bag on his shoulder. It didn't need to be hidden, of course, but he didn't want to answer any questions he was sure was going to follow if she saw the tear. Because both were so concerned with making sure the other didn't notice, they actually had a spot of good luck and neither actually saw what was going on.

After digging through several sharp instruments Ranma couldn't readily identify, several different forms of money, and tons upon tons of rare gems, tablets, and scrolls, Ranma finally found the damned cube. It was only about a foot in each direction, and appeared to be gold-plated. On its surface was an elegant, yet intricate, rune made of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics and smoothly cut lines. In the center of what Ranma assumed was the top, was the same Egyptian Eye. '_Really, why couldn't there have been a 'this end up' arrow?'_

He walked over to where Hotaru was standing and stood by her. "Don't blink" He said, before pushing a little bit of magic into the cube, causing it to glow with a black aura, something Hotaru took notice of. Suddenly, the brightness expanded to cover the entire area of the clearing in front of them, with a flare of black light that was still bright enough to cause need for both Ranma and Hotaru to put their hands to their eyes to block out the light.

After about thirty seconds, the light subsided, and in the place the cube had been, a large four-story mansion now stood. Hotaru stared at it unashamed, while Ranma, who was cool and collected, like he had expected this to happen, on the outside, he was having a little chat with Yami on the inside.

"_You didn't think to tell me the 'house' the cube made was actually a four-story mansion with enough room for eight people because…?" _Yami just shot him a smart response. "_You never asked." _Ranma could almost HEAR the smirk on Yami's face, so he decided to cut his losses and turned back towards Hotaru.

"Well, here it is. Come on in, and let's see if we can't get you feeling better." He didn't notice the lack of a cut under all the blood on her forehead as he turned back into the house.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

After they had both taken showers and gotten cleaned up, Ranma found Hotaru in one of the spare rooms, laying back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. She had changed from the black and purple outfit to a grey and dark red shirt with black jeans, which had been with all the other clothing the closet had come stocked with. '_Man, when Yami said fully stocked, he meant fully stocked. There's even an ever-restocking pantry. Does this kid wear anything other than black and dark colors?'_

He walked over to the desk in the corner and pulled the chair out, sitting in it backwards facing Hotaru, who hadn't moved since he had come in.

"Hey, do you want to talk about it?" He asked gently. When she didn't respond, he sighed. "Alright then, I'll tell you my story." Still no movement. "Well, the first thing you should know is that there are three kinds of magic." Even though she didn't show it, Hotaru's interest was piqued. '_Three? I thought there was only two. And why is he starting here?'_ "The first of these is Light. The Light characters are generally referred to as the Hero's in a story. Most light spells are used for healing or things to that effect. They are also used to banish things of Dark Magic. Light Magic users generally have pure intentions and souls. People like the Sailor Senshi of Juuban are Light Magic users." '_Yep, that sounds like us, protectors of Love and Justice. Not really all it's cracked up to be, actually'_

"Dark Magic is magic designed to harm or kill a person. Dark Magic is normally used for evil and destruction, and the worst of the users use the destructive force of magic to either destroy the world or dominate it. Dark Magic users generally have either corrupted or warped views on right and wrong, but not always. Dark Magic users are known as Dark Mages or Black Mages, and are almost always fighting Light Magic Users." '_Ok, I knew that. But, what is the third type?'_

"The third type of magic is chaotic magic. Chaotic magic is the most unique, and therefore, the most misunderstood of all types of magic. Chaotic magic contains both elements of weak Light Magic and Dark Magic as well as Neutral Magic, and is therefore known as the Neutral of All Magics by the ten or so people that know it exists. The problem is, that most of the people who know of magic only know of two kinds." He paused for a second, to let the information sink into the unresponsive girl.

"Now, people who use Light Magic, or White or Light Mages, generally assume that Chaotic Magic is Dark Magic, and try to destroy its users. Dark Magic users assume it is another Dark Magic User and either try to gain support from them or destroy them, seeing them as obstacles to their goal. This is why not many people know of or use Chaotic Magic." '_Interesting, but why have either Light or Dark Magic at all?' _As if he was reading her mind, he answered her question.

"However, all three types of magic are needed in order for the world to survive. If there was no Light Mages to oppose the Dark, then Dark Magic would dominate the world, causing endless pain and suffering. If there was no Black Mages though, then Light would have no reason for existing and the rules between Light and Dark would fade to Gray. But Chaotic Magic is equally important. It's the magic of change. Chaos causes people to adapt to change. However, Chaotic Magic Users cannot choose a side. They cannot be either good or evil, only candid to right and wrong. I personally, use Chaotic Magic." If he heard her slight gasp, he didn't show it.

"My story itself started when I was six. My baka of a father decided that my mother 'would make me too soft' so he took me to train to be the ultimate martial artist…"

And so he told her his tale. He found it odd that he was spilling his life story to a girl who, for all appearances, wasn't listening to him at all. He told her everything, leaving nothing about his abilities or past out, even the curse, which, because she hadn't moved or given any other sign she was listening, hadn't bothered to demonstrate. When he was done, he looked at her.

"That's my life. Now, I don't know if yours has been better or worse than mine, but if you want to talk about it, I'll be here to listen." When she didn't move, sighed, stood up, and started walking towards the door. He stopped his hand about an inch from the door when he heard Hotaru's voice behind him.

"Have you ever felt you could trust someone, not have them hate you for who you were, and then find out that it was all just a lie? That they never were your friend, but had a much more sinister reason behind their actions." Ranma thought back to his first day at the Tendo's home as he walked over to the side of the bed and sat next to her. She still hadn't moved. He nodded.

"Well, then, here is MY story. It probably all started to go to hell when I was very young. My mother was killed in an explosion, and I was badly injured…" And she told her tale. If it was any other person she was talking to, nobody would have believed her. However, for someone like Ranma Saotome, he found himself mildly impressed with her after she revealed she was Sailor Saturn and what she had been through with the others. She had long sense stopped caring about who knew the Sailor Senshi were. There was one question he had when she was finished.

"It seems like the Outers were taking good care of you. Why don't you want to go back to them?" She suddenly clammed up and her eyes got a far-away to them. It was only a second before she spoke, though. "It was yesterday when everything changed."

--FLASHBACK--

"_Uranus World Shaking!"_

"_Neptune Deep Submerge!"_

_Hotaru turned around just in time to see her world shatter. _

_It was supposed to have been a simple job. The inners were taking care of a youma call on the west side of Juuban, a smaller Youma attack was occuring on the east side of the ward. She and her adoptive parents, Michiru, aka Neptune, and Haruka, aka Uranus, had been asked by Pluto to handle it._

_The fight itself was over quick. It was a low level youma, barely even able to stand up to one senshi, much less three. All it took was a quick 'Silence Glave Surprise' and it was wiped out of existance. She'd turned around to look at the property damage for just a moment, when she heard the attacks called out._

_She spun around, thinking that there was another enemy that her Michiru-mama and Haruka-papa were attacking. When she saw the yellow and blue attacks only three feet away from her and closing in fast, the truth hit her._

_They were attacking _her.

_She didn't even have time to flinch as the two orbs of elemental magic slammed into head on. The impact sent her flying back into the wall of a nearby building, damaging it and dealing several gashes to both her outit and her person. She slumped down the wall, coughing blood onto the cement._

_She heard a yell and saw Uranus decend on her, her glowing blade in hand. She screamed as the sword cut deep into her left side, right below the rib-cage. After dealing several more less vital, but still mortal wounds, including stabs to her shoulders and knees, Uranus jumped back, and Hotaru caught a flash of emerald green hair. She managed to crawl to her knees as relief flooded her._

'_Setsuna-mama! Thank Go-' Her thoughts were cut off when Pluto raised her key staff and whispered, something Hotaru barely caught. "Dead Scream." She screamed again as the moving ball of temporal magic slammed into her, driving her back into the wall, which collapsed ontop of her._

_Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto dropped their guards and Uranus walked over to the rubble pile. She nudged one of the rocks with her feet, and watched with grim satisfaction as blood pooled out from under the rocks. She turned back to the others._

"_She's dead. The rest of the world is safe now. Remember, the Inners know nothing of this. Hotaru died from a Youma's lucky shot." Her communicator went off, followed by Neptune's. Pluto's was silent, as she never answered it anyways. They met eyes and nodded, before putting on hurt faces._

_Neptune reached down and pulled her communicator out of subspace. She flipped it open, to reveil a holographic image of Sailor Moon's head. She looked at them. _

"_Hey, we're done over here. We managed to-" She was cut off. "We, meatball head?! You didn't even do anything except trip and fall on your face!" Rei's voice sounded over the communicator. Usagi started to tear up. "WHAAA!! REI'S BEING MEAN TO ME!" She started to cry, but caught sight of Michiru's (fake) sad face, like she was going to cry at any minute. She immediately went into her 'Neo-Queen Serenity' mode. "Neptune, report." _

_Neptune started talking, voice think with fake emotion. "W-w-we got t-to th-th-the site of th-th-the Youma at-t-tack. It was only one Youma! How could this happen?" She broke down into sobs, dropping the communicator. Uranus put on her best sad face and picked it up. _

"_Th-th-they Youma got in a l-l-lucky shot. Hotaru's d-d-dead." The communicator went blank for a minute, and the sound of plastic and metal hitting concrete was heard. A second later, Usagi's voice came back, but it sounded distorted and thick with the desire to cry. She was probably composed on pure will alone._

"_Understood. Get back to the shrine. We need the full story. Moon, over and out." The communicator went dead, and both Neptune and Uranus stopped acting. They quickly shared a kiss, and Uranus whispered something, making Neptune blush heavily. They both composed themselves and started heading to the Hino Shrine._

_Pluto had only one thought in her head. 'Finally, the last threat is finished. I think I deserve a break from those damned gates.' She walked off in a different direction, determined to find a bar, unwind, head home, and not go anywhere near the gates for a few weeks._

_-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-_

_Here was one problem with their stories, though. Hotaru wasn't dead. She was bleeding heavily, unconscious, and dieing, but not dead. Suddenly, purple energy started pouring out of her wounds, surrounding her and healing her much faster than should have been humanly possible_

_Deep within her subconscious, the Silence had come to a decision. What? Yes, the Silence is corpreal. It was the entity that controlled all most of the pure destructive energy in the universe. It had been partially soul fused to her soul in her first life, the one before the Silver Millennium. While it did control destruction, it wasn't evil. It respected, even loved (like a daugher, baka hentai!) Hotaru in her last life and again in this one for not destroying everyone, which she could have done, for what they did to her._

_Now, Hotaru was dieing, and if she died, the Silence would be adrift in an endless void for what could be another ten thousand years, so it decided to do something unprecedented. It was going to give up most of it's power to save her, by bonding. Right now, it would be enough to heal her completely, and eventually, it would be completely merged with her soul, turning her into the next Silence. She would be her own avitar, and most importantly, she would survive. _

_Back in the world of the living, Hotaru was completely out of it for several hours. When she finally woke up, her wounds were gone, and she was still under the collapsed wall. Pushing some of the rubble away, she de- and then retransformed to clean off the blood, before slumping to her knees and grabbing her head, and yelled, not but in pain, but for her betrayel. Not caring where she ended up, she turned and ran._

--FLASHBACK END--

"After that, I just ran until I couldn't run any more. I fell asleep in that alley, and woke up to find those boys kicking me. You found me shortly after that." She sat up and looked at him, trying to avoid his gaze. Finally, his Soul of Ice couldn't hold his anger completely, as a crimson red and black aura started swirling around him. Hotaru flinched back upon seeing this, and Ranma stood up. "Excuse me for a minute Hotaru." He walked out of the room as Hotaru watched him leave.

At first, she thought he was mad at her, but when he walked out without seemingly getting mad at her at all, she calmed down slightly. A few minutes later, she heard yells of "THOSE BASTARDS!" and "WHERE THE HELL DO THEY GET OFF TRYING TO MURDER A TEENAGED GIRL?!" followed by loud explosions. That made Hotaru feel good, as she couldn't detect any falseness in his voice, like she did in Uranus's and Neptune's (she'd ignored it, thinking it insignificant).

Ranma, on the other hand, was pissed off beyond all reason. After he left the room Hotaru was in, he walked up to the fourth floor and entered one of the doors on the left, which Yami had told him would be able to help with his anger. In the room he found a fully fledged training area that, by the runes he saw etched into the walls, was indestructible, generated targets, and hid energy signatures. After he entered the room, he dropped the soul of ice and let the inferno of Crimson Red and Midnight Black engulf the entire room.

He thought back to a comic book he had read a few times. After the first battle scene, he had instantly became hooked on it. He thought that, while he was brimming on Anger Ki, he may as well try a few of the moves used in the story. He brought his hands to his right hip and cupped them, before shoving them forward with a cry of "RAGE OF THE KAMEHAMEHA GOD!" as a red and black beam of pure energy sliced through three of the dummies, turning them to ash. He started ranting as he blew up several more dummies using various moves he'd seen from the DragonBall Z manga, including the Kamehameha wave and Android 18's Destructo-Disk.

When he returned to the room he left Hotaru, she was still there, and smiling slightly, a good sign in Ranma's mind. "It's getting late. Do you want to stay here with me for a while?" She hesitated, trying to find any underlaying tone of malice, but when it came up dry, she nodded. "Ok, then. You can have this room. Mine will be across the hallway. If you need anything ask me." She nodded again, and as Ranma walked out of the room, she was already asleep, exhausted from her day of running and her explanations. Ranma grinned as he flipped the light off. Hotaru's last thought before darkness consumed her was 'Maybe things are finally looking up.'

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When Ranma crossed the hallway to his room he sent a message to Yami. He replied with a slightly curious **"Sure, it's not like we're doing anything right now anyways."** A little later, as Ranma fell asleep, Yami pulled him into the Shadow Realm, just like he had asked.

Ranma opened his eyes to see both Yami and Exodia were standing in front of him, Yami looking a little confused and Exodia looking like only a giant yellow god wrapped in chains could. Ranma just stood there for a second before starting.

"Hey Yami, Exodia, how you been?" After a little small talk, he got down to business. "Ok, I think Yami is confused as to why I wanted you here, and Exodia… never mind. No idea. Well, after I did a little training in Egypt, I tried to teleport back to Nerima, but missed. I ended up in Juuban, and found a young girl named Hotaru being beaten by some kids…"

When Ranma finished his explanation, he truly feared for the lives of the Outer Senshi. Murder was clear in Yami's eyes, and the very fabric of the Shadow Realm was shaking with Exodia's Cold Fury. "So you can see why I want to help her. What can we do?" Yami thought it out for a moment.

"Well, it never hurts to have help. Does she have a deck?" Ranma just shook his head. "No, she never had a chance to grab any of her stuff. I can't blame her. I guess I could go out and buy her one..." Yami cut him off.

"Don't bother. If you look in one of the rooms on the third floor of the mansion, you should be able to find a virtual dueling arena and a machine up against the wall. If she places her hand on the panel on the machine, it should create a custom, powerful deck that's based on her personality. Those would be hers to keep. Only you can give someone permission to use the machine. The Virtual Platform will recreate a shadow duel using holograms. It's great for practice."

Ranma nodded, and then spent the rest of the night asleep dreaming of the task to come, and how to get revenge on the people that would dare hurt a young girl.

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Hotaru woke up to the scent of breakfast. Wandering the halls, she managed to stumble into the kitchen, which was decorated a lot like the rest of the house, gold with Egyptian knick-knacks scattered on the shelves. In the center by the stove was a currently female Ranma fixing what appeared to be eggs and sausage.

She sat down at the table just a Ranma through two plates high into the air, which came down to land on the table with a soft thud. Hotaru just blinked.

"Not bad, huh? Eat up. We've got a busy day today." Ranma said as she walked over to where her plate had landed. Sitting down, she started to eat at a speed that Hotaru could barely follow. After she finished, she waited for Hotaru to finish eating before putting her plate up and telling her to sit back down.

"Ok, Hotaru, I've already told you of my job, but did you want to help? I could use some companionship on my mission. And I really don't want to leave you by yourself to find somewhere to live while the crazys are out there, probably looking for you. So, do you want to help?" She asked.

Hotaru hesitated. It wasn't that she didn't trust Ranma… ok, it was that. She trusted her more than anyone else right then, although she wasn't sure why, but she wasn't sure if this was what she wanted. She paused to think.

If she said yes, she'd be stuck on yet another grand andventure, not that that was a bad thing. If she said no, Ranma would probably put up for a while, but she'd eventually have to leave, as she wouldn't want to put a burden on her. Then where would she go? Finally, she slowly nodded.

Ranma stood up. "Ok, then. Do you have a deck?" Seeing her confused look, Ranma took it as a 'No'. "Ok, then. Follow me." Without waiting for Hotaru to get up, she walked off, leaving Hotaru to catch up.

They walked up to the third floor and found the door Yami was talking about. It had a large Egyptian Eye on it. Ranma opened the door, and hearing Hotaru's gasp, said, "Welcome to the Duel Arena. First off, lets get you a deck." He grabbed her wrist gently and placed it on the metal pannel in the center of the machine. Hotaru kept it there, wanting to pull back with a portion of her being, while the rest of her wanted to see what would happen.

Eventually, the smaller part of her mind won, and she tried to pull back, only to find that she couldn't. She felt like she was being drained of her life force. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her hand, and was able to actually pull her hand off the cold metal.

That was when she realized that her entire hand was coated with a fine layer of blood, her blood, like a child does a finger-paint. Her bloody handprint was still on the metal pannel. Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Maybe I didn't do it right…" she trailed off when she saw the machine spit out a deck of about 60 cards.

"Never mind." She handed the deck to Hotaru, who looked at it confused, flipping through about five cards.

Ranma smacked her head with her palm. "I just remembered, you don't know the rules of Duel Monsters, do you?" At Hotaru's shake of the head, he sent another message to Yami. "Dude, I just remembered. Hotaru has absolutely no idea how to play Duel Monsters, and I can't be bothered to teach her. It'd take to long, and I'm a horible teacher anyway. Do you have any idea where we can go to teach her?"It only took about thirty seconds to get a reply. "**I may have an idea or two…" **The Wickedness in the voice amost made Ranma shiver. Almost.

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Yugi Moto was feeling pretty good about himself. He had just beaten Yami-Bakura in a shadow match, had several starchips, and all of his friends were still with him. Now he needed to get enough starchips for him and Joey, defeat Pegasus, and rescue his grandfather. That couldn't be too hard, huh? He paused. He could have sworn he heard laughter on the wind.

After a minute, he kept walking. (AN-That was me!) Suddenly, a large purple circle, that almost anyone would have described as a portal, open up, hovering about three feet in the air. "Eh, Yug? What is that?" Yugi just shook his head. "I have no ide-" He was cut off when two people were forcibly flung out before the portal disappeared.

One was a girl with red hair. She wasn't very tall, but looked both agile and strong, and was wearing a black pair of pants and a shirt designed with a large dragon snaking its way up the back, over her shoulder, and ending with its head just under her left shoulder.

The other was a slightly younger girl with black hair. She was wearing a pair of black jeans and a red shirt with a golden Egyptian Eye on it. The girl in purple sat up slightly and rubbed her head. "Ouch." She moaned.

The other girl stood up and dusted herself off before raising a fist to the sky and yelling "DAMNIT YAMI! THAT HURT!" Before she started muttering about 'sadistic spirts that take kicks in forcibly flinging people across dimensions.' She offered a hand to the black-haired girl, who took it, stood up, and dusted herself off while cracking her neck.

Neither of the girls had noticed Yugi or the gang. (they were facing the wrong way)

The red one started looking around saying something like "He said they would be here? WHERE ARE THEY?!" Yugi sneezed, and they both turned around. The one with black hair chirped out "Found them!" The entire Yugi gang sweatdropped.

Tea, who was standing behind the whole group, asked the question on everyone's mind. "Who are you?"

The girls looked at eachother, before simultainiously scratching the backs of their heads.

"I'm Ranma Saotome…" the red-head said.

"…And I'm Hotaru Tomoe…" said the one with what they now realized to be purple hair.

"…And We're sorry 'bout this." They said at the same time.

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Up in a place that some people call heaven, Asgard from others, a diety simply named 'Karma' was laughing her ass off. She'd been trying to inflict some due revenge on the NWC, but because of his unique magic alignment, Ranma had always attracted her vengance by mistake. Now that he wasn't in the dimension anymore, nothing was stopping her from dealing out her justice. She loved her job sometimes

CHAPTER END


	4. Chapter 4

Puzzle in the Window

Authors Notes- Hey, here is PitW, C5. I know I've been neglecting it, but that's because I'm seriously blocked on this part. I plan to go from the duel with Panik, all the way to the Paradox Brothers and maybe to the duel with Kiba at the castle entrance. That's three matches, I think.

Panik, Bones, and the Paradox Brothers. I'll have to check that.

However, this does mean it'll be two or three chapters before Ranma and Hotaru make it back to Nerima/Juuban.

I'll also add in some NWC bashing in a side story chapter… was NWC in the canon, or did that just become fanfic slang? Anyway. Here it is.

Chapter 5

"Ok, ok, hold on. I mean, we've heard some screwy stories before, but this one has to take the cake!" exclaimed Joey, right after Ranma had finished explaining. She told them everything, how they came from another dimension, how Ranma was really male, and how Hotaru needed training.

"Yea, I mean, two girls falling into some weird vortex after wishing that you had a way to teach Hotaru here how to duel is really far out there." Said Tristan.

Well, one out of three ain't bad.

Apparently, she'd claimed that they'd been sitting at home, wishing for a way to teach Hotaru Duel Monsters, when they were swallowed by the vortex and thrown out there. Again, they had no idea where they were. Oh, and Ranma… forgot to mention that she's actually a man, but that's just an insignificant detail.

"Hey, it's what happened. So, can you help Hotaru or not?" said Ranma. Not that Hotaru was feeling left out. She was perfectly happy to let Ranma do all the talking.

Yugi paused. "Come with me" He stands up and walks off, Ranma and Hotaru following him.

Yugi scratched the back of his head nervously. "Uh... well, we're right in the middle of a competition right now, and I really need to win more star chips…" Ranma cut him off. "Let's make a deal, then. You teach Hotaru, and I'll win your star chip things for ya'. That work?"

"I don't think that's a good…"

"Please!" Hotaru watched in slight awe as Ranma whipped out one of her most fearsome moves, the dreaded puppy-eyed technique! Yugi had no defense.

"Oh, alright. Here, you're going to need this." He slipped the red glove on his right hand off and handed it to Ranma, who put it on her right hand.

"That's a duelist glove. You need ten star chips before we can enter the finals… right now we have-"His words were cut off as a shriek cut through the air. "MAI!" exclaimed Joey from behind them as the three boys (Yugi, Tristan, and Joey) and three girls (Hotaru, Tea, and Ranma) dashed through the underbrush in the direction of the scream.

Busting through the clearing, they saw a man shrouded in shadow with glowing yellow eyes on one side of a virtual duel machine. Mai Valentine was leaning over the control panel as her Harpies Ladies Sister was blasted right off the field.

"No! How could I lose?" Mai said as the podium lowered to the ground.

The man on the other side of the field laughed. "Simple, little girl. I am the best eliminator in the game! I am darkness, the night, but you can call me… PANIK!" His voice sent chills down Tristan, Joey and Tea's spine. Yugi and Hotaru ran over to Mai, and Ranma growled.

"Mai, what happened?" Yugi asked. She just leaned on him, fear evident in her voice.

"It was incredible. I never even saw it coming. He smashed me. Don't let him get you, as well!"

Panik laughed again. "Foolish girl. I will eliminate any person I face. Come, bring on my opponent… or will you let your friend be eliminated?"

By this point, Ranma's rage had reached I high peak, her aura suppressed by the bracers on her arms.

"Who the hell do you think you are? Messing with people and putting people in impossible situations. I hate scum like you. Your match has come." The voice made Panik involuntarily flinch. He figured it would have been much more welcoming if she had screamed bloody murder at him, instead of the deathly calm, yet steely voice she had used.

"I agree with her! Lets Due-"He stopped when he remembered he'd handed Ranma his glove. He turned back to her with a sheepish look on his face, scratching the back of his head. "Uh, no offense, but I think this guy may be a little out of your league. Could I…?" He trailed off and held out his hand.

"No way, man. A deal is a deal. You teach Hotaru, and I duel."

"WHAT?!" Ranma and Yugi winced at the pitch of the screams from Tea, Joey and Tristan. "Uh, did we not tell you guys?" All three shake their head slowly.

"Oops. Well, we'll explain later. I guess I can't go back on my word. You're up, Ranma." Ranma stepped onto the podium, and it slowly started to rise.

"So, four star chips, then?" Ranma asked. (AN- I have no idea how many star chips he had at this point.)

"Foolish girl. I'm not betting with your STAR CHIPS! THIS DUEL IS FOR YOUR LIFE!" Panik said as he hit a red button on the console. Suddenly, the sides of the duel arena opened up, and flame jets shot out of the little cannon-like weapons.

Focusing just a small amount of power, Ranma created a barrier against the fire, resulting in it burning the console around her, but not her itself. She was vaguely aware of someone, probably Tea, yelling 'RANMA!' behind her, but as the fire died down, Panik's maniacal laughter stopped as he realized she was unharmed.

"H-h-how?" Panik stuttered. "Fire cannot harm me. I suggest you don't try that again." To illustrate her point, she shot a weak black and purple sphere of pure Ki, instead of the emotional and incredibly dangerous Chi she was so accustomed to using. She figured that her Chaos magic had something to do with the color.

Panik paled as the orb missed his head by mere inches. "Next time, I won't miss," was all she said about that.

"Now, I'll even let you pick the deck. So, is it my weakest, my medium level, or my strongest?" Ranma asked.

"FOOL! I am going to be your strongest opponent EVER! I chose your strongest deck, but even that won't help you!" Panik said, inflating his ego while annoying Ranma at the same time. An anime vein appeared on the side of her forehead.

She reached past the two boxes on her belt and into her back pocket, pulling out a deck that should have never fit into the small pocket on her tight jeans, not that anyone noticed.

If anyone was wondering, the shadow magic gave her the ability to temporarily lock her curse, meaning that she had no chance of accidentally changing back to male while there. It didn't work in reverse, for some reason.

It was easily eighty cards thick, a fact that would have made Panik raise his eyebrows, but that wouldn't be scary.

"RANMA! ISN'T THAT THE CUSTOM CARD DECK?!" Yelled our favorite Senshi of Saturn. Tristan turned to Yugi and muttered, "custom cards?", causing Yugi to just shrug. "THE _UNTESTED _CUSTOM CARDS? THE CARDS YOU'VE NEVER EVEN SEEN BEFORE?!"

"YEA, HOTARU. THEY ARE. NOW, WATCH THE MASTER!" Ranma yelled back, causing Panik to laugh.

"YOU, A MASTER? DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH!" Panik then returned to laughing, causing Ranma to sweatdrop.

"Are you through, yet?" Ranma asked.

"THAT EAGER TO LOSE, HUH? FINE!"

"_LET'S DUEL!"_ They both shouted at the same time.

Panik: 4000

Ranma: 4000

Ranma and Panik both drew their cards. Ranma gave hers a look over. '_wow, when he said 'custom', he wasn't kidding. I've never heard of any of these.'_ She thought. "I'll go first! I play one card face down, and then play the **CASTLE OF DARK ILLUSIONS (L4/920/1930**!" Panik exclaimed as a large, yellow, floating castle materialized on the field.

Back behind them, Mai exclaimed, "That's the card he used to defeat me! RANMA, BE CAREFUL!" If Ranma heard, she didn't show it. Panik's voice started to sound from everywhere as a black smoke covered the entire area.

"MUHAHAHA! THE CASTLE OF DARK ILLUSIONS COVERS MY ENTIRE FIELD IN SHADOW, OBSCURING MY MONSTERS FROM VIEW. BE CAREFUL, LITTLE GIRL. YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT LURKS IN THE DARK!"

Ranma just yawned. "You through? Good. That means it's my turn." She drew a card. "I place one card face down, and play **LENNE, SONGSTRESS OF ZANARKAND (L4/1500/1900)**, in defense mode." Suddenly, a young girl, no older than eighteen or so, appeared on the field. She was about five six, with a blue shirt and skirt on. A microphone was in her hands, and almost any male would describe her as simply 'beautiful'. She sunk down to one knee, crossed her arms in front of her face, and assumed the defensive position.

(AN- if you can't image her, look up either LENNE or YUNA on google images. They look almost identical.)

Suddenly, a two cards slightly jutted out of Ranma's deck, as if needing to be drawn. She took them and looked, then grinned.

"Thanks to Lenne's special ability, I can play these two cards, **GARMENT GRID** and**SONGSTRESS DRESSPHERE!**"

A large stone tablet appeared in the air behind Ranma. It had several intricate runes carved into the edges, and in the center as a sixteen-sided figure made of empty nodes, each connected to each other by a black line. Suddenly, the top node flashed, and a purple ball with a light blue music note appeared on it.

"It's your move." She said shortly.

Back on the ground

"Lenne? Garment Grid? Songstress Dressphere? What the Hell? Yugi, Joey, you ever heard of those cards? I know I haven't" Said Tea. The two just shake their heads silently. Hotaru is silently taking notes.

Panik just laughed. "You've cheated! You cannot play two magic cards on the same spot!" He continued to laugh maniacally.

Ranma just snorted. "Not these cards. All Dresspheres must be played on the **GARMENT GRID** card."

Panik growled. "Don't think it will help you, little girl!" Ranma heard a card being played, and the flash of light from the other edge of the arena signified that her ears weren't lying.

"GO MY MONSTER OF DARKNESS! ATTACK LENNE WITH YOUR CLAWS!" Shouted Panik. Suddenly, huge, evil looking brown claws with dark brown fur shot out of the darkness. Ranma barely got a chance to check it's stats.

It was 2000/1530.

The claw grabbed Lenne around her waist and yanked her into the darkness as she screamed, before an explosion of pixels showed her destruction.

Ranma grimaced. "Ouch, that had to hurt." She drew another card. The smirk on her face had chills running down Panik's spine. Not that anyone could see it through the fog.

"First, I play the field spell card '**FARPLANE'**" stated Ranma. Suddenly, the field changed into a strange array of platforms that looked like they were made of sickly green flowers with some brown and a small hint of pink in it. There was a small waterfall off to the side, and what looked like fireflies were flying around the entire area.

"Next, I play**SHUYIN, BLITZ STAR OF ZANARKAND**, (**L5/ 1900/1500)** in attack mode." A young man with brown hair and a yellow shirt with black shorts appeared on the field. He was about an inch shorter than Lenne had been, and there was a large sword in his left hand.

(AN- Search SHUYIN or TIDUS. Same guy, basically.)

"It's your move." She stated coldly, glaring at him the whole way long. Panik just laughed. "YOU MADE A ROOKIE MISTAKE, GIRL, BY LEAVING YOUR CARD IN ATTACK MODE! GO, MY BEAST, HAVE THE DARKNESS CONSUME HIM!" Panik said in his semi-creepy voice. Oh, but before that, he played a card.

The arms from last round shot out of the fog, reaching for Shuyin. When they reached him, however, something weird happened. Instead of grabbing Shuyin and drawing him into the darkness, the hand suddenly wrenched back into the darkness, as if the touch had burned him. Panik looked down to see his life points had dropped.

Panik: 3900

Ranma: 4000

"IMPOSSIBLE! MY**KING OF YAMIMAKAI **HAS 100 MORE ATTACK POINTS THAN YOURS! YOU SHOULD'VE BEEN THE ONE TO LOSE 100 LIFE POINTS, NOT ME!" Panik screamed.

"That would have happened, but you forgot Shuyin's special effect." Smirked Ranma. "Shuyin cannot be destroyed by monster attacks if Lenne is in play. The difference between his attack and your attack is deducted from your life points!" said Ranma.

"BUT LENNE ISN'T ON THE FIELD! I DESTROYED HER LAST TURN!"

"Oh, isn't she?" Asked Ranma. Then, she pointed a single finger in the open space on the right side of the field. There, was the ghostly form of Lenne.

Panik's eyes widened in fright. This was NOT in the standard game plan. "W-WH-WH-WHAT TRICKERY IS THIS?!"

Ranma smirked. "Scared, Panik? That's the beauty of the Farplain. Any and all creatures in my grave yard are considered 'In-Play', and that includes LENNE!"

"NO!" he frantically looked through his cards until he spotted one he over-looked. He laughed, maniacally. "MUHAHAHAHA! I PLAY MY **CHAOS SHIELD**!" Ranma recoiled only slightly, before saying slowly, "Chaos Shield? Increase the defense points of all the monsters on your side of the field by 300… that shouldn't be…too much trouble."

Panik, most of his confidence back, started laughing again. "YOU'RE THINKING TO SMALL, LITTLE GIRL! BY COMBINING THE CHAOS SHIELD WITH MY CASTLE OF DARK ILLUSIONS, I CAN CREATE AN IMPENETRABLE CHAOS SHIELD ON MY SIDE OF THE FIELD!" Suddenly, a yellow barrier sprung up out of the shadows, circling the Castle of Dark Illusions. Ranma, while slightly worrying on the inside, was cool, calm, and collected on the outside.

She drew a card. Then smirked. "Panik, this duel ends now. This has been fun… I guess, but I really must be going. And this card will be the end of you." She pulled one of the cards out of her hand.

Back on the Ground

"One card to finish this match? Is there really such a card that's THAT powerful?" Joey asked in a low tone, which Hotaru barely caught.

"Knowing Ranma, there is, and she's holding it," said Hotaru, who knew from the small amount of time she'd spent with Ranma that she NEVER bluffs.

All six (Mai included) turned back to the action.

Ranma played the card down. "I activate the magic card '**YRP SUMMONED AND IN POSITION'**! To play this, I need to sacrifice a card on the field…" Shuyin disappeared off the field in an explosion of colorful fireflies, and reappeared by Lenne. "…and pay 500 life points…"

Panik: 3900

Ranma: 3500

"…and I can summon YRP to the field!" Three cards shot out of her deck, which she drew and placed on the field. Suddenly, three girls, one who looked a lot like Lenne, appeared on the field.

(AN- The author wants to finish this fast, so if you DON'T know what Yuna, Rikku, and/or Paine looks like in gunner, thief, and warrior, in that order, btw, look it up. I can't be bothered to describe it.)

They were **YRP MEMBER: YUNA (L6/1800/1700), YRP MEMBER: RIKKU (L6/1600/1900), **and**YRP MEMBER: PAINE (L6/2000/1500)**. Of course, this caused three more cards to poke their heads out of the deck, which she promptly played. Suddenly, the grid behind her had three more spheres fill in, a blue one with a gun in it, a red one with a sword, and a yellow one with a chest in it. **GUNNER, WARRIOR, **and** THIEF**, in that order.

"First, I use Rikku's special ability, True Sight!" Suddenly, the black mist started to clear. Ranma realized that **CASTLE OF DARK ILLUSIONS**was suspended above a **DARK CHIMERA **and a **KING OF YAMIMAKAI.** Perfect.

"Next, I use Yuna's special ability, Trigger Happy!" Yuna raised both her guns in front of her, her arms crossed just above the elbow. Suddenly, she fired off ten shots at the Castle of Dark Illusions. "Trigger Happy causes Yuna to fire off a number of bullets equal to the cards in both our hands (AN- that should be four for Ranma and six for Panik…), each bullet doing between 100-500 damage," said Ranma as the ten bullets lodged themselves in the Castle's Flotation Ring, which cracked slightly.

"BWAHAHAHA! WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THAT? I'M STILL STANDING. THE ONLY THING THAT MANAGED TO DO WAS SLIGHTLY DAMAGE THE FLOTATION RING!"

Ranma smirked her perfected 'I-know-something-you-don't-know' smirk she'd picked up from Nabiki. "True, but… If I attack with Paine, the flotation ring…WILL FALL! And you've trapped all your creatures behind your Chaos Shield. There will be no escape. PAINE! HIT THE FLOTATION RING WITH 'POWER BREAK'!"

Paine ran forward before using an insane 720 degree three flip back hand-spring ending in a reverse Aerial (360 degree turn with a flip at the same time) causing her blade, which was glowing red, to crash straight through the flotation ring, destroying it. Suddenly, the castle slowly started to sink, and as it landed, it smashed both the **DARK CHIMERA **and the **KING OF YAMIMAKAI**, causing both of their attack points to be deducted from Panik's life points, as well as the difference of Paine's attack points and the Castle's attack points, which is 4690 damage.

Panik: 0000

Ranma: 3500

Panik colapsed on to his console, sending his cards everywhere. "NO! I CANNOT LOSE!" screamed Panik. He suddenly glared up at the still smirking Ranma. "How is it that you destroyed only the flotation ring and not the entire castle?" He asked.

"Simple. Power-break can cut through one shield to hit an opponent. Normally, this would have sliced right through the ring and destroyed the Castle, but it had to pierce the chaos shield first. Therefor, the flotation ring took all the damage." Panik growled, realizing it was his own card that had cost him his match.

"I MAY NOT BE ABLE TO TAKE YOUR CHIPS, BUT I CAN STILL TAKE YOUR LIFE!" He yelled, forgetting the incident with the black and purple Ki ball.

More flame jets appeared on the side of ho lo-field, and all opened fire on Ranma. Sighing, she shattered the cuffs around her feet that Panik put on at the beginning and made a flat disk of Ki floating above her right and left hands, which were palm up above her head.

Suddenly, she pulled back, and threw the disks side-arm style. They each sliced through the flamed cannons before embedding themselves on each side of Panik. She spoke in a voice so icy, it sounded like hell had frozen over.

"That's the second time you've tried to kill me. I don't take too kindly to that." She stretched one arm out in front of her, fingers extended outward, like in a grasping motion. Suddenly, the disks melted into energy, which swirled around Panik, before constricting him, covering his entire body except for his head.

"Now, I'm going to make sure you never try that again." She closed her hand into a fist, and the darkness covered Panik's head, before constricting in on itself until Panik disappeared. As the pedestal lowered, one of the cards on the ground glowed before flying into ranma's hand. She looked at it and smirked, before discretely slipping it into a pocket.

The others ran up to her. "Ranma, that was amazing! I've never seen anyone who's dueled like that before!" said Mai. "Ey, Ran? Where'd Panik get to?" said Joey. They'd been obscured by another set of fire jets Ranma left undamaged as to avoid unwanted questions.

Ranma sweat dropped. "First off…Ran?" Joey shrugged, looking sheepish. "Eh, better than some others. Secondly, Panik… uh… jumped off the platform and ran off, leaving the four chips behind." Ranma said, looking slightly nervous, something only Hotaru caught up on. Everyone else just shrugged. "Works for me." Said Tea. Ranma handed back Mai's star chips, who ran off, leaving a note that said 'I owe you star chips'.

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Later that night, Hotaru got Ranma to follow her into the woods. They walked for about thirty yards before Hotaru stopped and leaned against a tree. Ranma followed suit.

"Ok, spill. I know that Panik didn't just 'jump' from the platform. Where is he?" She asked, glaring slightly at Ranma, just to make her point. Ranma sighed. "I sent him to the Shadow Realm. Someone who's willing to kill like that, indiscriminately, can't be allowed to continue existing. If you're ever in a shadow duel, and you win, you're allowed to banish your opponent to the shadow realm. If you have a Millennium Item, you can do it after any duel."

Hotaru frowned. "I don't like it, but I have to say, you're right. Someone like Panik can't be allowed to continue killing people for cash. Also, I hate to ask, but…" Ranma cut her off.

"I think I know. You want a Millennium Item as well, don't you?" Hotaru just nodded. Ranma wasn't sure if she should. She'd only known Hotaru for three days, for crying out loud. But… something in her mind just screamed that Hotaru could be trusted to Ranma. And for Ranma, that sense had never been wrong before.

Slowly, she reached up and diffused the Millennium Tauk from the Puzzle, and took it off her neck, before tossing it to Hotaru. "This is the Millennium Tauk, seer of the future. I've used it, but it isn't right for me. The Tauk chooses it's user, and I know it wasn't me. Maybe it's you." She shrugged as Hotaru put the necklace on.

"Only time will tell. However, I need to get to sleep. My training starts tomorrow." Hotaru walked past, but suddenly stopped right by Ranma and leaned in close, whispering, "you know, I never did thank you for saving me or letting me come on your adventure, or anything else you'd done. So, thank you" she then gave Ranma a quick kiss on the cheek before walking off, leaving the boy-turned-girl leaning against the tree, blushing like crazy, trying to get her brain restarted and figure out what just happened.

CHAPTER END!


	5. My pathetic plea for help

A desperate plea for help!!

I'm going to get killed for this, I just know it. First I write what could be called an interesting, if not poorly executed, idea for a story that gets no small amount of reviews. THEN, I don't touch it for almost a year. Now I'm back, and for the people who wanted a new chapter where Joey gets his butt kicked by Kaiba, you get this piece of crap. I really, really am sorry. But I need some help.

Besides another story i'm working on that hasn't been put into production yet (sorry, it'll be a while still... it's probably going to be a HUGE story), I'm dedicating much of my free FFn time to this (I also have school and WoW to contend with, and just plain lazyness...) story. Now, for what I need help with.

First off, I'm going to rewrite the story. I know, I know, but it's needed. I've spotted a few things I want to do differently. So first thing, please let me know if you've found something that I should change to make the story better. Not all of the suggestions will be used, but if I think it'll make the story better, I'll try to put it in.

Secondly, I know everyone is looking forward to it, so give me your suggestions for how to extract Karmatic revenge on the NWC. I have a few ideas, but not enough. All suggestions will be considered, and, if you so wish, you can recieve credit for it at the bottom of the chapter.

Third, I would love to have someone do some beta work for me. Preferably someone who knows the first season of Yugioh, the Ranma 1/2 series, the basics of Sailor Moon (as this is AFTER the canon) and at least has a solid grasp on Slayers (just because it hasn't been initiated yet doesn't mean it won't show up :P) and can help me with ideas as well as just doing spelling/grammar.

Fourth, please don't be hurtful. There's a difference between suggesting and insulting. I'm looking for suggestions, not bashes. If you yell at me, I'll almost completely disgrard anything you say.

Again, don't be upset with me. I'm still working on getting better at this, but I will try harder, I promise. So review, please, and give me advice, please!

Oh, and I remember a poll I'd asked for, and an overwhelming number of people chose option 3... as embarrased as I am to say it, what was option 3? Does anyone remember??

REVIEW WITH SUGGESTIONS! I BEG YOU!


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